LONDON UNDERGROUND
W Cheaper, better, faster, stronger
hilst it may be difficult to see the light at the end of
the tunnel, given the country’s current economic circumstances, it is important to remember that a massive amount of investment has been and still is being channelled into improving our public transport systems.
On the London Underground system, for example,
improvements to both stations and signalling are going to mean that passengers experience better services and that staff have better facilities with which to deliver those services.
“We all recognise that the future will be characterised by significant public spending constraints,” says Patricia Holdgate, head of resourcing & workforce planning at London Underground.
“London Underground is looking at smarter and more efficient ways to deliver a world class Tube service – doing more with less. It is important, as a rail industry, that now, more than ever we work together – operators, engineering contractors and consulting engineers, to realise engineering excellence and deliver improvements to our rail networks as cost effectively as possible.
“As an industry, we have suffered from scarce skills areas for decades and we are keen to retrain or attract people with signalling, civil and planning backgrounds, working more closely with our delivery partners and competitors to realise ways to share skills
22 rtm
and attract new talent into the industry.”
A number of upgrade works taking place across the network, including Bond Street, will provide opportunities for new employment.
“As each of the components of the major Tube upgrade works are finished, London Underground will be able to operate faster, more frequent services on individual Tube lines which will provide much needed additional capacity.
“We will need more operational staff to deliver the additional train services we will operate and have a greater customer assistance provision, through additional customer service assistants, in frontline roles in stations across the network. In addition, to maintain our new state of the art environment we will need station maintenance teams.”
Upgrade works will cause disruption as they take place, but they will deliver many gains once they are completed, as well as new jobs.
“The upgrade of the Tube will Patricia Holdgate
deliver a 30 per cent boost in Tube capacity – with new signalling systems and over 250 new trains in service. There is no point running additional services if the stations are not able to accommodate the major increase in passengers that will use them in the future and many of our key stations are heavily congested.
Tottenham Court Road station is benefitting from a major £500m redevelopment to dramatically expand the capacity of the station. Other heavily congested stations such as Bond Street, Victoria and Bank will also benefit from major congestion relief schemes.
It is all about making our major stations in central London able to cope with growing passenger numbers and future demands. King’s Cross St Pancras Tube station, one of our busiest stations with around 80 million passengers each year, has been transformed by an £800m investment that has quadrupled the capacity of the station and is a fantastic example of what investment in the Tube can deliver.”
Many of the station upgrade works are being undertaken in conjunction with Crossrail which will provide a much-needed 10 per cent boost to London’s rail capacity providing new, faster journey opportunities from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west to Canary Wharf, Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east with new Underground Crossrail stations joining existing Tube stations at Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon and Liverpool Street.
The industry suffers from significant skills shortages and with the number of planned investment programmes on both London Underground and Network Rail infrastructure, Patricia predicts that a variety of technical / engineering roles will have to be filled, ranging from lift & escalator engineers, signalling designers, test and commissioning engineers, C&I, civil, Pway and planning engineers.
There is also a significant shortage of quality engineering graduates and those with commercial and quantity surveying skills.
“We should start by looking at GCSE options – not enough students choose science based subjects. This is vital for the industry to gain enough apprentices and graduates to fill future opportunities and become the industry’s next leaders.
“The number of students electing to undertake engineering degrees has significantly reduced – we need to position the rail industry at a younger age as a great place to work – as it truly is.
“If people want a career with London Underground, we offer the most diverse range of opportunities of any organisation, making career progression and development second to none and as part of the wider Greater London Authority family, movement around the other modes - LU , surface transport, London Rail and Crossrail - is one of our key career benefits.”
Oct/Nov 10
As with all public transport systems, London Underground is having to change the way it operates to deliver better services for less. Rail Technology Magazine spoke to Patricia Holdgate to find out how
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